Hope

I know my last post was kind of depressing but such is life in Peace Corps. However since then I have had tons of work and spirits have been high.

Last Saturday the San Pedro VAC (I don't remember what VAC stands for, but basically a group of volunteers in a similar geographic area) finally had our HIV/AIDS workshop, which was cancelled in December due to rain. None of my high school teachers were really interested in going and I don't have a health post or any nurses in my community but I went anyway to help out. Other volunteers brought teachers, health workers, nursing students, etc and we had a good turnout. We gave charlas on decision-making, values, behavior change, good communication, self-esteem, as well as the basics on HIV/AIDS and how to teach about it. It was really awesome to see a group of people who were open to new ideas, ready and willing to learn and who wanted to teach and inspire other people as well. That's something you don't see very often here.

Monday I went to the Centro de Salud with my pedido for parasite pills. I was so much easier to get the pills than I expected. I just went to the office of the director, handed her the pedido, she called the pharmacist and asked about the supply and sent me to the pharmacy. I walked out half and hour later with 130 bottles of medication. Monday afternoon I brought them to the school along with a bunch of cucumbers from my garden that the teachers have been questioning me about incessantly. Side note: if you ever want to feel good about yourself in this country, bring people gifts. They gushed on and on about how guapa I am and how they are going to ask my bosses if they can keep me here forever.

Tuesday-Thursday has been spent at the school. The medication I got is a liquid that has to be given twice a day for 3 days. Since there are different students morning and afternoon I've been going twice in the morning and twice in the afternoon to give them the meds. It's exhausting but after the first day the kids started getting so excited when I walked in (it tastes like vanilla). And today they were sad that it was the last day but when I reminded them that they don't have any more sevo'i (worms) they all got really happy.

Next week I am hosting a meeting with the Comision de Padres (Parents Commission, basically the PTA) to talk a little about parasites, to remind them that I will not be here next year and that if they don't want their kids to get parasites again there are ways to avoid it, like wearing shoes and covering their food so flies to land on it. Also, I am going to show them step-by-step how to get more pills from the Centro de Salud so hopefully they will do it again next year.

I was reminded this week that change does happen but not all at once. The school will continue to frustrate me until the day I leave. But there are some people who are willing to go that extra mile, to work a little harder to make their lives better.

School Blues

Lots of things have surprised me in a year of being here. But one thing that never ceases to amaze and depress me is the lack of education in this country.

I don't know how much I've talked about school here so I'll just start from scratch. Kids go to school 4 hours a day, either in the morning (7-11am) or afternoon (1-4pm). School never starts on time, most of the time the teachers don't even show up on time. The director, if he is there, will gather the students, line them up and they will sing the national anthem. Then they go to their classrooms and spend about half an hour cleaning the room while the teachers sit around and chat. Later on in the day half an hour is given to recess, if not more depending on how good the gossip is in the teachers' circle that day. So overall the kids get about 2 hours of actual "learning".

Students "learn" here by copying whatever the teacher writes on the board directly into their notebooks. Teachers care more about their writing looking lindo than the actual content. If kids don't want to pay attention, they sit in the back and talk or just get up and leave and wander around the school grounds.

School started here a couple weeks ago so I went to talk to the directors of the elementary and high schools about our plans for this year. The director of the colegio (7-9th grade) informed me that while he really wanted to work with me, half of the school day this year (2 out of 4 hours) would be spent on learning about the Bicentennial (Paraguay turns 200 in May). Today I learned what this means: high school kids sitting around singing songs in Guarani while the teacher plays guitar. It's great to learn about your culture but what about everything else? Nobody seems to care if their kids can read or write but they sure are patriotic!

I guess I'm just frustrated. I have been trying to get my director serious about working with me to get parasite pills and fluoride for all the students. It's not difficult, just 2 documents I need him to look over and sign them so I can turn them in at the Centro de Salud in town and get the pills. And he has been complaining that the last volunteer never did it and that he has tried to do it and that it's so hard and all this crap. But when I try to do his work for him, he still won't help me at all.

EDIT: So it's the next day, I was extremely frustrated yesterday. I finished the pedidos to the best of my ability yesterday and printed them off. Today I took them to the school with the intention of not leaving until I had a signature. The director was more than happy to see me and show off his new car that he had been out picking up yesterday. That's why he never showed up. Awesome. Anger in check, I sat down with him and explained that all he needed to do was tell me how many students were in the school and sign his name. I even brought a pen, just in case.

The paper got signed and tomorrow I going to town to hunt down the right people at the hospital to get the pills for the students. I'll accompany the fluoride and parasite pills with charlas about dental health and preventing parasites so hopefully in the future those pills won't be necessary. So although it's disheartening that the kids aren't learning a single thing from anyone else at school, at least I can try to teach them something worthwhile while I'm here.

Time Flies When You're Having a Crazy Foreign Experience

I've been here a year already. Say what?! I know, it's hard to believe. Everyone says that the second year goes by faster than the first; well that's pretty much impossible because this one flew by.

For the past couple of months I've been stuck in a rut here in site. I guess it's that time of my service where I get depressed and question everything and blah blah blah. It's also summer and people here have wanted to do as little work as possible; that includes not working with me. So I've spent a lot of time working on my house. I have a shower finally and yesterday my boyfriend and I built the cement floor for my latrine. Once it fully cures in 2 weeks well slap it over the hole that's already been dug and build a little house for it. So, after living in my house for 6 months, it'll finally be complete! I also have a beautiful garden that many people have come over to admire. When I suggest that they too could have a linda garden they tell me it's impossible during the summer. Yes, they are normally standing right next to my flourishing garden when they say this.

It's frustrating. I wonder why I'm here if no one wants to work with me. But it's not me they don't want to work with; they just don't want to work. I get it, it's hot. I don't really want to work either. I have also not really enjoyed sitting on my butt doing nothing for 3 months. I've felt worthless and unnecessary here.

I was a little inspired yesterday as we were building my losa (cement floor for latrine). Several neighbors came over wondering what the heck we were doing and after seeing the finished project and the fact that 2 people (1 was a girl for heaven's sake!) did it in 2 hours, have expressed interest in building losas for their latrines. This is great because I've used some of these latrines and some are just a board or two over a 2 meter pit of poop. Diseases and flies fester, not to mention the smell is awful.

Like I mentioned before, school is scheduled to start on February 23. We've had great weather, rainy and cool, so hopefully it won't be delayed because of heat or anything. At the end of last school year, the director expressed interest in reviving the school garden, which right now is just a fenced-in jungle, so that will be quite the task. This year I'll be working in both the escuela basica (pre-k - 6th grade) and the colegio (7th-9th grade) so I'll have more kids to teach and different topics (adding drug addiction, self-esteem, etc).

So it's been a rough couple of months but I've made it a year so far and I'm looking forward to 15 more months of this crazy life called Peace Corps.

A Word About Packages

First of all, thank you so much to everyone who has sent me packages, you are awesome!!

I have received too packages recently that were both wrapped in plastic because somehow in transit they got completely soaked. I've heard that sometimes packages just "fall off the boat" but who knows. Anyway, as much as I like receiving packages of paper mush, I would actually like to read that magazine or book rather than roll it up in a ball and give it to the cat to play with.

I think the easiest solution is, if you are sending something made of paper or that comes in a cardboard box, if you could wrap it in saran wrap or something of the sort, just as a precaution, that would be wonderful. I know postage is expensive and I hate to see the things you guys send get ruined by falling in the ocean or whatever else might happen to them on the way here.

Obligatory Holiday Blog

So I know the holidays are a few weeks past but I'm just now getting in the mood to write again. And a ton has happened since the last post so this might be kind of long. I've been better at uploading pictures so if you get bored while reading this, take a look at the new pics! http://picasaweb.google.com/mandisue182

The first week in December my friend Erica and I took a short vacation to Mar del Plata, Argentina. We took an 18 hour bus ride to Buenos Aires, then another 5 hours south to Mar del Plata. It's a beautiful tourist town with tons of gorgeous beaches, where we spent most of our time. We stayed in a cute little hostel owned by a bunch of brothers and sisters. We were only there for 3 days (+2 days of travel) but we made the most of it; going to the beach during the day, exploring a little, then going to eat delicious food at night. Most bars and clubs don't even open until after midnight so being accustomed to life in the campo and going to bed by 10pm, we didn't experience much of the nightlife. I was constantly amazed by how different Paraguay and Argentina are. Even the Spanish accents are entirely different, which frustrated me to no end. Our hosts one evening told us that Paraguayans are uncivilized because they live with "the natives". Argentina has natives too but they keep them all separated in the north. I know many Paraguayans who have either gone to Argentina to work or have family there who send money back on a regular basis. It makes me sad that Paraguay is surrounded by all these thriving countries but, because of bad luck and bad leaders, it's been left in the dust to fend for itself.

On our way home, after being on buses for 22 hours, we got to the Argentina-Paraguay border and realized we could go no further. Both sides of the border had closed to all buses and anything besides foot traffic. Argentina wanted to raise the tax for people entering and Paraguay just closed theirs to retaliate. Apparently this happens often. They were saying the border wouldn't open for 3-5 days. We had no money and both of our cell phones were dead so we decided to walk to the border and find out for ourselves what was going on. It turns out we had no trouble crossing on foot, they even let me stop and charge my phone for a bit, and there were buses waiting on the other side to take us the rest of the way to Asuncion. So that was not an ideal way to end our vacation but an experience nonetheless.

All of December was spent fixing up houses. Some people repainted, some bought new furniture and added on rooms. It was crazy. I almost felt like I needed to spruce up my house a bit, but then realized they were only doing it to impress family members that would be coming for the holidays.

I spent both Christmas and New Years with my boyfriend's family. The have a ranch-style house about 30 minutes outside of my community. As soon as I got there the day before Christmas, Elvio's mom gave me a plate of chipa guasu (cheesy, oniony, deliciously greasy cornbread) and told me I was too thin. She fed me nonstop over the next couple of days. Christmas Eve was spent watching tv, eating, drinking wine and coke, and just hanging out. We all stayed up until midnight, wished each other Feliz Navidad, then went to bed. On Christmas, no one really mentioned it at all. Elvio and I took a horse out to explore his land and visit a nearby stream but it had just rained so there were billions of mosquitoes so we decided to head back home.

The day after Christmas I started feeling really sick. I had a fever (having chills and goosebumps when it's 100 degrees outside is weird) and every part of me ached. I could barely move without being in extreme pain. Elvio's family was really worried and after about 24 hours of this, his mom said they were going to take me to the hospital if I didn't call me doctor. All of my symptoms fit those of dengue fever, and although it's very painful and not fun, there is no treatment or cure besides drink fluids and rest, which I had already been doing. So after a couple of days, my fever finally went away and I was able to get on my feet again.

The week between Christmas and New Years I spent with neighbors, drinking terere, eating watermelon (cut in half and eaten with a spoon), and trying not to die of heat stroke. Have I mentioned it's hot here? Yeah.

New Years were more of what I had expected from Christmas. I went back to the ranch and a bunch of aunts, uncles, cousins and distant relatives came over to celebrate. New Years Eve I helped Elvio's sister make clerico, basically fruit salad soaked in white wine. We stayed up until midnight once again, the kids set off a ridiculous amount of firecrackers, which scared me every time, and then we went to bed. New Years day I met all the family and, just when I thought I had gotten used to the extreme awkwardness of Paraguay, got asked multiple times when I was going to start having kids because I'm almost too old now! I told them it is prohibido to have kids in Peace Corps and that I would prefer to stay here and not get sent home. They all agreed. For lunch we ate delicious asado (not-quite-barbecue ribs), chorizo and duck along with more chipa guasu and, of course, mandioca. After lunch and before food-coma, we all filled our glasses with wine and went around saying what we were thankful for and what we wished for in the following year.

So now it's 2011! Last year flew by as I'm sure this one will too. I'm looking forward to starting new projects, continuing old ones and doing everything I can to make a difference here.

Summertime and the Livin's Easy

It's summer! Well almost. The last day of school is Tuesday but the kids and teachers have already been in the summer mindset for weeks, only showing up to school for an hour or so for "exams".

As the days get hotter and longer, the conversations get shorter with sips of terere filling the gap. A typical conversation goes something like this:
"Haku"
"Heê, haku porã"

(It's hot.
Yeah, it's really hot.)

*Repeat every few minutes just in case someone forgot.

My community seems like a ghost town during siesta and most outdoor work occurs 5-10am and 4-8pm. I was working in my garden one afternoon and when I went to take a cold shower, my neighbor told me I had to wait until I wasn't so sweaty or else I was likely to explode. And that would have been unfortunate.

Speaking of gardening, I'm getting quite good at it! There are many vegetables and fruits that grow during the intense summers here. I have planted beet, squash, sunflower, cucumber, carrot, green pepper and eggplant. I'm hoping that people will see my lindo garden and want one of their own. Since my community is located so close to the pueblo, many people just go into town and buy veggies rather than growing them. Having their own gardens would be cheaper in the long run and much more convenient. I also want to start cooking classes because most people don't know how to cook with veggies.

This summer I'm also planning a couple of summer camps for the kids. One with general health themes and another as an art camp. I am definitely not an artist but the kids here don't really have a sense of creativity. They spend all day in school copying the teacher's notes off the chalk board and get in trouble if it's not perfect. I want to help them realize that it's okay to express yourself and be creative. So we'll see how that goes.

I have my computer back so hopefully I'll be able to update more often with blogs and pictures. I love and miss you all, especially this holiday season!

Meltdown

The 8 month mark in Paraguay came and went. And I´ve discovered the past couple weeks that Peace Corps is not all baby animals and sunsets. Yes, I´ve had rough days but nothing compares to the past couple weeks.

It started when I got an infection that caused a very painful rash. After a couple of days I couple hardly walk; even the 30 meters to my neighbors`house was excruciating. I couldn´t walk therefore I couldn´t work. I stayed in my house all day and felt sorry for myself.

Then last weekend I got home from a very painful journey into town and my cat had knocked my computer off the dresser and the screen broke. So not only could I not walk, now I had lost contact with all my friends and family back home. I called a friend here in hysterics and she calmly told me that the world is not over and to text my parents so they can call me. They called a few minutes later and just hearing a familiar voice made such a huge difference.

However, I was still in a lot of pain. I had spoken with the Peace Corps doctor but the treatment she suggested wasn´t working. I finally decided it was time to go to the hospital. I told my host family what had been going on. Paraguayans are pretty ¨sin verguenza¨ (without shame) when discussing physical problems so I told them exactly what was wrong. They arranged for a ride to take me to the hospital. It was a very strange experience. The doctors in the ER were all hanging out and drinking tererè. After several minutes I went in, told them what was going on and they gave me a new treatment. This helped with the pain briefly but it was still very difficult to walk.

I had basically abandoned all work I was doing. I left the house maybe once or twice a day. My host mom came over to check on me at least 4 times a day to make sure I wasn´t in too much pain but she was still very worried. She told me everyday that I needed to go to Asunciòn and see my doctor there. I took her advice after a total of 9 days with this infection.

Now I´m back in site and doing much better. I walked over a mile yesterday and still felt alright. My computer is still broken but it´s not the end of the world. I was very lucky to have received two packages from home just before this whole ordeal started so I was able to surround myself with things that reminded me of home and with letters reminding me that I am not alone. But I think the biggest help came from talking with my host family. Once they knew that I wasn´t just hiding in my house because I hated everyone, they came to visit often and made sure that I was doing alright. I realized that when I´m having rough times, I can´t do everything on my own. And just when I start to feel that everyone at home has forgotten about me and moved on with their lives, I get a letter or something reminding me that that´s not true.

So aside from a lot of complaining in this post, I just want to thank everyone so much who reads this, sends me letters or packages, or just thinks about me throughout the day. It means a lot. Also, thank you to Mrs. Haskell and the students at St. Charles Catholic School who, even though you don´t know me or my community personally, you want to help us however you can.

It´s a hard journey that I´ve been crazy enough to go on. But you guys make it a whole lot easier.